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Production in Publishing Forum 2007

Presentations 2007

Web 2.0

Sheena Bassett, Senior Consultant Pira International

Web 2.0 is taking off – social interaction is now playing an important role in the online world and developing technologies are enabling data to be combined in new and innovative ways. What does this mean for publishers? Will there be a place in the Web 2.0 world for publishers as content is increasingly shared, distributed and used in new products and users are given increasingly powerful tools to create their own combinations of content? Some of the possibilities and issues for publishers are discussed in this presentation.

What is ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) and why is it important to publishers?

Mark Bide, Consultant Rightscom Limited, UK

ACAP is a joint project of the International Publishers Association, the World Association of Newspapers, and the European Publishers Council. It is developing and piloting a standardized framework for the machine-readable expression of permissions for access to and use of online content. While the initial applications of ACAP relate primarily to the relationship between publishers and search engines, it is anticipated that the ultimate scope will extend substantially beyond this. Mark Bide is the ACAP Project Coordinator, and will provide an update on the progress of the project.

Coping with production process challenges today

This presentation looks at the constantly changing requirements of a production department, the impact this has on workflows and on the way data is managed. As well as adapting to new technologies and the changing needs of the end user, there is greater pressure to increase productivity, with less staff and with greater profitability. The presentation includes a case study looking at the use of Klopotek systems in producing global marketing catalogues.

Die Digitalisierung der Inhalte verändert die Medienindustrie

Content digitization, new access technology and end devices provoke changes in usage patterns within all media sectors. The volume of business made by music downloads to mobile or permanently installed end devices has grown considerably in the past few years. Consumers can watch videos on the internet using Video on Demand (VOD) services. As for print media, newspapers are facing similar substantial shifts in the market and there are signs that similar electronic products will bring changes to the book market, too.

E-books: gradual establishment and new complexity

Dr. Werner-Christian Guggemos, Managing Partner ciando GmbH, GER

The history of e-books is brief, but one that has undergone a lot of change in a relatively short amount of time. After the 2000/2001 public e-book hype and subsequent condemnation, it’s time to revisit this important topic.
Unnoticed by the public, e-books have gradually established themselves on many levels in the book industry. Most of them are practical guides, such as user manuals, textbooks and handbooks. They exist mostly in PDF format and can be read on pc, mac or laptop. Works of fiction have barely penetrated the e-book market due to a lack of user acceptance and technological obstacles. However, users are becoming familiar with reading content on screen and well-designed digital text reading devices are being developed. Originating in the Asian and Anglo-Saxon markets, these technologies are ready to roll out into Europe in the next few years. Next year, drastic changes such as entertaining content will make a big push into the e-book market. Book publishers, especially publishers of fiction, who have remained passive will have to become active to face competitors from outside the industry (end-device producers). As a result, a variety of new end devices, business models and content providers will contribute to a new market complexity.
This development poses new challenges for production departments, such as providing different end formats. Publishing book files in media-neutral formats is only a partial solution. Files will require specific finishing depending on the end-device and content provider. Publishers must learn to distinguish between products which require specific treatment, and they must find out which standards are likely to establish themselves in the market.
The e-book market will surely remain volatile for a while.

„Herstellung im Verlag – Status quo und Perspektiven“

Ulrich Spiller, Heinold, Spiller & Partner, GER

We carried out the “Production in publishing – status quo and prospects” study in close coordination with Klopotek & Partner GmbH and Leipzig University of Applied Sciences. Business processes and models in book and journal publishing are subject to constant change. This study focuses on how this affects production departments. We interviewed production directors, managers and production experts, who all agreed that production will be changing soon.
Four market drivers are central to this process:

To handle this complex development process, innovative analysis and management tools are required. Almost ninety percent of production managers find it essential to employ workflow control systems. Software tools such as editorial systems are also gaining recognized importance. Knowledge in data structuring, cross media publishing and workflow analysis has to complement traditional production know-how. Production managers must expand their expertise in project management and strategic thinking as well as their capacity for teamwork. The study reveals that production managers are vital to safeguarding the future of their publishing houses, calling on them to actively support this process by training themselves and their departments for future undertakings. Surveys carried out with trainees, recruiters and the alumni organization of Leipzig University of Applied Sciences suggested that the newly acquired knowledge may also serve as a basis for restructuring current training programs.

Workshop Instant Publishing

Arnoud de Kemp, Managing Director digilibri GmbH & Co. KG, GER

The developments in the publishing business vary greatly, ranging from books-on-demand, printing-on-demand, electronic-only, e-books, full text-online and online repositories to open access, open archives and university publishing. With the integration of DOI registered content in the large book catalogues like VLB we expect a big push for “electronic publishing”. The German Association of Publishers and Booksellers (Boersenverein) has gone live with its VTO (Full Text Online) project. Now, booksellers are showing interest and collecting information about licensing models, sales and distribution opportunities. Who will come to us and what will be expected from the editorial, production and marketing departments? In this workshop new developments and opportunities will be addressed and experiences among colleagues will be exchanged.

Workshop: Measuring production process quality

Klaus Voormanns, Head BPM competence center arvato systems GmbH, GER

Many industries increasingly engage in business process evaluation knowing that improvement can only be achieved for processes capable of being measured. Process monitoring, starting from a simple duration measurement to evaluations of complex quality performance indicators, is becoming more important for the publishing industry.
These kinds of measurements, also known as Business Performance Measurements are necessary steps in common process management models. Other industries have made considerable progress in process monitoring as methods are tested and the effectiveness is determined.
The Measuring production process quality workshop will look at the current publishing industry standpoint and will evaluate approaches on the quality measurement issue made by various industries. Using an example, we will apply this subject to the publishing industry. We will show and discuss concepts from outside the industry and how they can be used by publishers. The key question we set out to answer is whether publishers can learn from other industries in this matter. Experts from various industrial sectors will attend the debate.

Workshop: Measuring production process quality

Michael Mittelhaus, PrePress Consultant, GER

Product ViewPoint – Klopotek’s new Information system

Gregor Wolf, CTO Klopotek AG, GER

Google Book Search – improving the discoverability of books

Jens Redmer, Director Google Book Search Google Inc., USA

The invention of the printing press didn’t make Gutenberg a rich man – but it did dramatically increase people’s access to information. Digitisation offers a similar opportunity today. The Internet has broken down many of the barriers that exist between people and information: effectively democratising access to human knowledge. By typing just a few key words into a computer it is possible to find out about almost any subject. But that online database is still limited by the fact that only a small fraction of mankind’s knowledge is actually available online. Google Book Search is part of our efforts to help organise the world’s information, making it universally accessible and useful. By making it possible to search and discover the millions of books that exist in the world today, we hope to expand the frontiers of human knowledge – enabling more people to find more books in more languages. Google Book Search has proved both popular and controversial, so the presentation aims at exploring the issues involved and explode some of the myths that have built up around the digitisation of content. Our aim is simple – to help more people discover more books, to the clear and measurable benefit of everyone in the publishing industry.

New products, new challenges + Workshop

I’ll be talking about competition to the book as a traditional medium for information and entertainment, how the market is forcing the book to change, what these changes mean to the publisher in terms of product development and future products, and what challenges to the traditional publisher these new products have brought with them and will continue to bring. I’ll then be covering what we’ve done in Macmillan so far to meet these challenges, what we intend to do in the future, and I’ll talk about our progress on a project to build our own eBook platform, BookStore – a project which has led us to face many of the challenges of the changing product world head on.

Every publisher needs a DAD – big issues facing publishers

This presentation will take a closer look at web-to-print, one of the key technologies within the media industry, and analyze why printing houses employ web-to-print solutions. One of the latest BHW innovations is the integrated printBox workflow solution which effectively supports communication processes and ensures process safety. By reducing work and costs, it benefits everyone involved.

Ideas that work – managementbuch.de

Britta Kroker, Managing Director Kroker Medien GmbH

What makes an editorial director change positions and become an internet trader?

• We are experiencing a radical change concerning the value chain within our industry.
• We are seeing a tremendous power shift within the industry.
• New competitors and customers are entering the market.
• Differentiating between the production, editorial and marketing departments is no longer easy.
• As a result, it is the end of linear publishing.
• We will have to communicate content in various forms simultaneously.
• We will need to communicate in a more time efficient manner.
• We need to use this opportunity to integrate customers into the development of publishing profiles and contents as well as in marketing and sales.
• We will need to customize our offers for the customers.
• We will see more target group oriented offers (long tail).

There are always a lot of opportunities during times of change. There are increased market opportunities for publishers, we have closer relations to our customers, there is better market research available, production costs are lower, there is multi-level-use of content and there are new sources for more revenue. The internet has just begun to reveal its limitless opportunities and revolutionary power to us. Get involved!

Standardized processes for the “one copy” edition

Dr. Moritz Hagenmüller, Managing Director Books on Demand, GER

Market developments and drivers:

• Rapid growth caused by reductions in average edition size
• Long Tail potential due to the growing importance of online book trade
• Standardization with the ability to customize

“One copy” edition service level:
• Printing, binding and 24 hours delivery to the end consumer

Digital content within the book industry as well as the number of users on the internet is continually on the rise, bringing with it the need for digital asset management tools. VTO, the official German full text search approach, offers publishers a platform to send their digital book contents and define which texts will be shown and provided to whom.
VTO makes these contents available to be searched as full-text articles on the internet while rights and control over the data remain with the publisher. The platform is operated by MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels GmbH (book industry marketing and publishing services) and technical support provided by HGV Publishing Services mbH, a service provider of the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.
The workshop will focus on aspects of how to publish titles on the VTO platform, convert scanned book pages into PDF documents or upload files. It will also cover how to add metadata (e.g. access rights for authorized/non-authorized users) to articles and operate VTO backend tools.

Workshop: Small budget – big goals. The story of outsourcing IT

Outsourcing, i.e. whether to create services in-house or have them supplied by outside experts, is a perpetual topic of discussion. Companies from all industries increasingly outsource IT infrastructures or entire business processes to reduce costs. In addition to reduced personnel costs, cost savings obtained through economies of sale offered by the insourcer makes outsourcing attractive. Strategic reasons to outsource non-core activities would be to:

• increase the dynamism of growth potential
• obtain profit growth

This workshop will take a closer look at IT outsourcing by presenting and discussing the advantages and disadvantages for publishers. Based on the discussion results, we aim to identify and define decision-making concepts for the publishing industry.

Ergebisse Berliner Werkstatt Herstellung

Ulrike Störrle, Production Department MAIRDUMONT GmbH & Co. KG, GER

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German

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Web 2.0

Sheena Bassett, Senior Consultant Pira International

Web 2.0 is taking off – social interaction is now playing an important role in the online world and developing technologies are enabling data to be combined in new and innovative ways. What does this mean for publishers? Will there be a place in the Web 2.0 world for publishers as content is increasingly shared, distributed and used in new products and users are given increasingly powerful tools to create their own combinations of content? Some of the possibilities and issues for publishers are discussed in this presentation.

Product ViewPoint – Klopotek’s new Information system

Gregor Wolf, CTO Klopotek AG, D

Google Book Search – improving the discoverability of books

Jens Redmer, Director Google Book Search Google Inc., USA

The invention of the printing press didn’t make Gutenberg a rich man – but it did dramatically increase people’s access to information. Digitisation offers a similar opportunity today. The Internet has broken down many of the barriers that exist between people and information: effectively democratising access to human knowledge. By typing just a few key words into a computer it is possible to find out about almost any subject. But that online database is still limited by the fact that only a small fraction of mankind’s knowledge is actually available online. Google Book Search is part of our efforts to help organise the world’s information, making it universally accessible and useful. By making it possible to search and discover the millions of books that exist in the world today, we hope to expand the frontiers of human knowledge – enabling more people to find more books in more languages. Google Book Search has proved both popular and controversial, so the presentation aims at exploring the issues involved and explode some of the myths that have built up around the digitisation of content. Our aim is simple – to help more people discover more books, to the clear and measurable benefit of everyone in the publishing industry.